I'm blindly posting which may not be a good idea, but I don't have the patience to read the entire thread... All I can say is that De Palma has grown on me exponentially over the years. I've seen everything except "Raising Cain" and "Phantom of the Paradise", and I find each film interesting and extremely re-watchable (with the exceptions of Mission to Mars and The Untouchables). Even Snake Eyes is entertaining as hell. "Sisters", "Blow Out", and "Carrie" are masterpieces, "Dressed to Kill" and "Body Double" are close to, and the rest is gravy. I don't know why the guy gets a bad rap...

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"I think you have to be careful to not become a blowhard." --Ann Coulter

i was at a pawn shop and saw an old vhs of blow out. it was in the padded case, kind of like what Disney videos come in. unfortunately, when i opened it, there were three petrified weird looking spiders and i have a weird feeling that putting it in my VCR would reawaken them. i have wanted to see it since tarantino said it was one of his favorites.

"The Untouchables" has got to be the most bland, vanilla, middle-of-the-road gangster film ever to be given serious attention. Costner sucks (as usual), Connery's a bore, De Palma has a few nice showy moments but for the most part plays it by the book, and Mamet's script is so by-the-numbers it's hard for me to believe the same guy wrote "Oleanna" and "House of Games".

Of course, I'm one of (apparently) less than half-a-dozen people on the planet who find Scarface highly overrated (although still significantly more enjoyable than The Untouchables), so it may be a bias against De Palma doing for-hire studio gangster pics with sub-par scripts written by normally spectacular writers. Who knows.

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"I think you have to be careful to not become a blowhard." --Ann Coulter

Aaron Eckhart has booked a starring turn in Brian De Palma's "The Black Dahlia," which Millennium Films and Signature Pictures are producing. The movie is an adaptation of James Ellroy's 1940s-set novel about two LAPD cops who investigate the real-life case of the murder of fledgling actress Elizabeth Short. Eckhart will play one of the officers. Josh Hartnett portrays the other cop. Hilary Swank and Scarlett Johansson also have been cast. Shooting takes place next month in Bulgaria. Josh Friedman wrote the adaptation.

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“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol

"The Untouchables" has got to be the most bland, vanilla, middle-of-the-road gangster film ever to be given serious attention. Costner sucks (as usual), Connery's a bore, De Palma has a few nice showy moments but for the most part plays it by the book, and Mamet's script is so by-the-numbers it's hard for me to believe the same guy wrote "Oleanna" and "House of Games".

Of course, I'm one of (apparently) less than half-a-dozen people on the planet who find Scarface highly overrated (although still significantly more enjoyable than The Untouchables), so it may be a bias against De Palma doing for-hire studio gangster pics with sub-par scripts written by normally spectacular writers. Who knows.

i know this is late, and i don't agree with you on the untouchables, but i agree with you wholeheartedly on scarface. i've seen it three times and i still just don't see what all the fuckin fuss is about. it's so boring, so often. too excessive, even for depalma.

black dahlia is going to rock, tho.

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"Do you laugh at jealousy?"

"No, I don't even laugh at seasickness! I happen to regard jealousy as the seasickness of passion."

CANNES -- In the first big North American sale at Cannes this year, Universal Pictures has picked up distribution rights to director Brian De Palma's $60 million 1940s crime thriller "The Black Dahlia," starring Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, Aaron Eckhart and Hilary Swank.

Universal paid $10 million-$15 million, according to sources.

After visiting the Bulgaria set en route to Cannes, Universal vice chairman Marc Shmuger became convinced that the film "was vintage De Palma material like 'The Untouchables,' " he said. "I was wowed by everything I saw. It's a rare opportunity to find a project with such great talent and a masterful story, self-financed and available. The director, the cast, the key departments that they put together are extraordinary."

Art Linson, one of the film's producers, hailed Shmuger as not only the best marketing mind in the business but also a "great creative partner."

The production team includes a Tiffany roster of Oscar winners including production designer Dante Ferretti, cinematographer Vilmos Zigmund, composer James Horner and costume designer Jenny Bevan. k.d. lang is singing the title song and has a bit part, Linson said.

Based on the 1987 James Ellroy murder mystery, "Black Dahlia" stars Hartnett and Eckhart as two boxers-turned-cops who become obsessed with finding the brutal killer of ingenue Elizabeth Short, aka "Black Dahlia." Her murder in 1947 led to one of the biggest manhunts in L.A. history. "It's one of the great all-time crime stories ever told," Shmuger said.

Johansson stars as the woman in the middle between the two men; in a turn away from her recent mannish roles, Swank plays a "sexy bad girl," said Linson, who is pleased to be working again with his "Untouchables" partner De Palma. "This kind of material harkens back to his work on 'Scarface.' It's playing right to his strengths."

After shooting in Sofia, the production will return to Los Angeles for two weeks June 11.

Adapted for the screen by Eric Bergren and Josh Friedman, the film was produced by Linson, Moshe Diamant and Rudy Cohen of Signature Pictures along with Avi Lerner of Millenium Films.

Diamant and Cohen developed the book for 10 years; Linson and Signature also partnered on last year's "Imaginary Heroes." Diamant said he put together the financing through foreign presales, the German fund Equity Pictures and gap financing. Linson started working with De Palma on the project 2 1/2 years ago. Linson believes that as the studios "get more conservative, it opens up risk-taking in other areas," which is why the project began with independent financing.

Diamant and Shmuger negotiated the deal for North America, the last of the territories to be sold. Shmuger was also involved in the acquisition of the Oscar-winning "Ray." Universal plans to release the film in theaters next year.

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“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol

Raven haired Linda and her school mate Linnea are studying after school, when their desires take over and they kiss and strip off their clothes. They take turns fingering and licking one another's trimmed pussies on the desks, then fuck each other to intense orgasms with colorful vibrators.

It's very funny. If you can get it for 10 bucks or so, I'd say go ahead and buy it.

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"A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later." --Stanley Kubrick